Cathy Young on Ferguson, Abusive Policing, and Racial Politics

The
tragedy and turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri—the fatal police shooting
of 18-year-old Michael Brown, followed by sometimes violent
protests and a heavy-handed police crackdown—have once again
brought the national spotlight on race relations in America. It has
also revealed unusual political alignments, with
libertarian-leaning Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and some
other libertarians and conservatives joining liberals and leftists
to denounce abusive police behavior, particularly toward young
African-American males.  Others on the right—not only Rush
Limbaugh but black commentators such as Jason Riley—are taking a
more traditional conservative view which sees the black community’s
worst woes as due not to racism but to its own cultural problems,
aggravated by the welfare state and liberal paternalism.

Each of these narratives, writes Cathy Young, has its truths and
its blinders. Each, by itself, is overly simplistic and (as it
were) black and white, both with regard to the situation in
Ferguson and with regard to the larger picture.

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